How to get attendees to take the front seats at meetings

I recently joined a fab Event Management group on LinkedIn called Event Planning and Event Management. There are loads of really interesting conversations going on which gives a fascinating insight into what everyone is talking about in the Event industry.

I stumbled across a really fun conversation entitled: If you have 500 attendees and they all want to sit in the back of the meeting room, what creative ideas do you use to seat them up in front?

Here are some of my favourite responses...

If you've got a buffet, put the food near the front. You'll find that people will want to have the first pick of the food.

Make the front area, the VIP area. People like to be made to feel like they're important.

Put whoopie cushions on the seats at the back.

Turn the seats at the back to face the back wall. In their confusion people would go to the front rather than turn the chair around.

Put a big sign up to say that if you sit in the first several rows you will be given a raffle ticket and put into a draw to win a prize.

Put signs up on the last few rows stating that people should sit there only if they want to be called on during the presentation.

Ask the last 5 rows to stand up and move to the front.

That's just a few of the comments. Why not have a look yourself for some inspiration.